Copiapó

Copiapó, city, northern Chile. At 35 miles (56 km) inland from the Pacific coast in the fertile Copiapó River valley, this irrigated oasis (usually regarded as the southern limit of the Atacama Desert) in an extremely arid territory has been farmed since the pre-Inca period. The community was elevated to villa (town) status in 1744, when it became San Francisco de la Selva de Copiapó. With the discovery of gold and silver deposits in the...